Skateboard simulator

ABSTRACT

A skateboard simulator includes a base, at least one support, a skateboard deck and a display. The skateboard deck is moveably mounted on the base by the at least one support. As a user moves the skateboard deck, the image presented on said display is responsive to movement of the skateboard deck.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to provisionalU.S. Patent Application No. 60/759,020, filed on Jan. 17, 2006, thedisclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention is directed generally to a providing a simulated boardingactivity and more particularly to a simulated skateboard.

2. Related Art

Skateboarding is a popular pastime and sport for many people. However,it requires a large amount of space and/or specialized facilities. Insome urban areas, it may be difficult to find the necessary space toparticipate in the sport. Moreover, specialized facilities may beexpensive to build and maintain. Additionally, skateboarding is subjectto the weather, daylight and direct participation in the sport may bedangerous and cause injuries.

Accordingly, there is a need for an alternative to traditionalskateboarding that is not subject to the drawbacks noted above.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention meets the above needs and avoids the disadvantages anddrawbacks of the prior art by providing a simulated skateboard system.The invention may be implemented in a number of ways. According to oneaspect of the invention, a skateboard simulator includes a base, atleast one support, a skateboard deck moveably mounted on the base by theat least one support, and a display that presents an image. The imagepresented on the display is responsive to movement of the skateboarddeck.

Accordingly, in one aspect of the invention a skateboard simulatorincludes a base, at least one support, a skateboard deck moveablymounted on the at least one support, and a display that presents animage, where the image presented on the display is responsive tomovement of the skateboard deck.

According to another aspect of the invention, a board sport simulatorincludes a base, at least one support, a board deck moveably mounted onthe at least one support, and a display that presents an image, wherethe image presented on the display is responsive to movement of theboard deck.

Additional features, advantages, and embodiments of the invention may beset forth or apparent from consideration of the following detaileddescription, drawings, and claims. Moreover, it is to be understood thatboth the foregoing summary of the invention and the following detaileddescription are exemplary and intended to provide further explanationwithout limiting the scope of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention, are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the detailed description serve to explain the principlesof the invention. No attempt is made to show structural details of theinvention in more detail than may be necessary for a fundamentalunderstanding of the invention and the various ways in which it may bepracticed. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates a side view of a skateboard simulator constructedaccording to principles of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an end view of the skateboard simulator of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of another embodiment of the skateboardsimulator constructed according to the principles of a invention;

FIG. 4 is a side view of the skateboard simulator according to FIG. 3;and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the invention, useable with theembodiment of FIGS. 1 and 3, including a monitor constructed accordingto the principles of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The embodiments of the invention and the various features andadvantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference tothe non-limiting embodiments and examples that are described and/orillustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the followingdescription. It should be noted that the features illustrated in thedrawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, and features of oneembodiment may be employed with other embodiments as the skilled artisanwould recognize, even if not explicitly stated herein. Descriptions ofwell-known components and processing techniques may be omitted so as tonot unnecessarily obscure the embodiments of the invention. The examplesused herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of waysin which the invention may be practiced and to further enable those ofskill in the art to practice the embodiments of the invention.Accordingly, the examples and embodiments herein should not be construedas limiting the scope of the invention, which is defined solely by theappended claims and applicable law. Moreover, it is noted that similarreference numerals represent similar parts throughout the several viewsof the drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates a side view of a skateboard simulator designedaccording to principles of the invention, and FIG. 2 is an end view of askateboard simulator of FIG. 1. The stationary skateboard simulatorincludes a stationary skateboard deck 100 mounted to a shaft mount 110of a base 120 by one shaft 140 in the center of the skateboard deck 100.The shaft 140 allows the deck 100 to rotate (side to side) along theaxis of the shaft 140, mimicking the way a normal skateboard flexes.

The board has a series of springs 130 on either side of the skateboarddeck 100 attached to the bottom of the skateboard deck 100 to thestationary base 120. The springs 130 provide resistance to keep theskateboard deck 100 centered as the user turns on the skateboard deck100. The shaft 140 may have an optical sensor, accelerometer, or anyother type of sensor that measures the rotation of the shaft or thelike. The sensor outputs an electrical signal transmitted through acable or the like that may run down through the base 120 to amicrocontroller mounted inside the stationary base.

Additionally, the stationary skateboard may also optionally includerotating wheels 150 on either side or both of the board. The wheels 150may be spun by the user pushing with their foot, simulating the way onewould push off the ground to propel a skateboard forward. This optionalarrangement is shown in FIG. 2 only, but may also be applied to the FIG.3 embodiment.

In particular, FIGS. 3 and 4 show another embodiment of the invention.In particular, the skateboard deck 100 as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 may bemounted to a first support plate 304 and a second support plate 306. Thefirst support plate 304 and the second support plate 306 may in turn beattached to a main support plate 302. Attachment of the plates 302, 304,306 may be through adhesive, mechanical fasteners, and so on. The mainsupport plate 302 may in turn be attached to a support 308 again throughany known attachment. The support 308 is rotationally connected to theshaft 140 allowing the skateboard deck 100 to rotate side to sidefreely. The shaft is held by a shaft support 322.

The support 308 may also contact a series of rollers 312 that aremounted on roller shafts 316 mounted in roller holders 314. The rollers312 provide a smooth contacting force between the roller side of thesupport 308 and the base 120. In this regard, the roller 312 and rollerholder 314 are spring loaded on the shaft 110 biased by springs 130. Itshould be noted that although an exemplary structure of rollers andsprings and shafts are shown with regard to FIGS. 1 through 4, any typeof structure that provides a smooth realistic side to side motion withrespect to the skateboard deck 100 is contemplated with respect to theinvention. The skateboard deck 100 is further supported on a base 120.The base 120 may be attached to the floor or other type of supportstructure through for example, a bolt 320 and a securing nut 318. Thebolt 320 may be for example, a lag bolt that is embedded into the floorbelow the skateboard deck 100.

Operation of the skateboard simulator may be provided through varioussensor controls such as for example, an encoder hub disc 402 that may bemounted on the shaft 140 or the shaft support 322. The shaft support 322may also support an encoder reader 404 that may be attached thereto withmechanical fasteners such as screws as well known in the art. Thevarious sensor devices that are arranged in and about the skateboarddeck 100 may initially send their signals to a circuit board 324 thatmay be arranged in or about the skateboard deck. The circuit board maybe for example, attached to a circuit board support 322 as shown inFIGS. 3 and 4 and may include a microcontroller.

The microcontroller may send a signal as a simulated mouse positionrepresenting the direction Left=Negative or Right=Positive followed by anumber representing an integer value of the number of degrees the boardis tilted from its centered state, through a USB cable or the likeleading out the front of the stationary base to a PC or the like.

This particular configuration allows the entire skateboard assembly tobe powered through a single cable, in this case a USB cable. Themicrocontroller connects to the PC as a Human Interface Device (HID)which is a standard protocol used to send key strokes and mousepositions to an operating system. The microcontroller may send the tiltof the skateboard deck encoded as a mouse position at a regularinterval. The PC runs a game based on the Torque game engine whichcaptures system events, including mouse and keyboard events. The gamemay use the mouse events to control the turning of the character in thegame.

FIG. 5 shows exemplary arrangements of the skateboard simulatorincluding skateboard deck 100. The skateboard deck 100 and supportingstructure may be mounted in and about a set of bellows 506. Inparticular, the skateboard 100 may be mounted above the bellows 506while the remaining structures shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 may be mountedinside the bellows structure 506. The bellows structure 506 provides asafe operating environment for the user of the skateboard simulator thatis standing on top of the skateboard deck 100. In particular, thebellows 506 prevent hands, fingers and the like from being injured withrespect to that internal structure.

FIG. 5 further shows the arrangement of a monitor 504 which may bearranged in front of the skateboard simulator including skateboard deck100. In particular, the monitor 504 may include a housing of 508. Thehousing 508 may contain the aforementioned PC computer or may holdadditional structure or less structure.

The PC has an update system that allows the operator to easily changethe content on the PC so it may be used as a dynamic media deliverydevice. The operator may log onto a website on a separate computer,select new and upcoming content and download it to a storage device (forexample to a USB stick or the like) as a single file. When the operatorinserts the USB stick into the PC, the computer may automaticallyinstall the new content without any user intervention. The update systemallows an operator to install upcoming updates that may only becomeactive at a later date. This way an operator may install the same updateon multiple machines and have the updates all activate at the same timeat a future date. Multiple updates may be installed at once so thatcontent can change from time to time without any further userintervention.

Although the examples of the invention have been directed to askateboard, other sports based devices may be utilized using the sameconfiguration as described above. In particular, the skateboardarrangement noted above may be replaced with a snowboard type ofarrangement with the same simulation as a skateboard being replaced witha snow ski scene; or surfboard type of arrangement with the simulationbeing that of surf and waves. Similarly, the skateboard arrangementnoted above may be replaced with a ski type of arrangement includingsnow skiing or water skiing and again the image being replaced with thatof down-hill skiing or a water-based environment.

While the invention has been described in terms of exemplaryembodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the inventioncan be practiced with modifications in the spirit and scope of theappended claims. These examples given above are merely illustrative andare not meant to be an exhaustive list of all possible designs,embodiments, applications or modifications of the invention.

1. A skateboard simulator comprising: a base; at least one support; askateboard deck moveably mounted on said at least one support; and adisplay that presents an image; wherein the image presented on saiddisplay is responsive to movement of said skateboard deck.
 2. Theskateboard simulator according to claim 1 wherein said base isconfigured to be attached to a floor surface.
 3. The skateboardsimulator according to claim 1 wherein said base is configured tosupport a circuit board.
 4. The skateboard simulator according to claim1 wherein said base is configured to hold at least one support.
 5. Theskateboard simulator according to claim 4 wherein said at least onesupport comprises a shaft for rotatably connecting to said skateboarddeck.
 6. The skateboard simulator according to claim 1 further comprisesspring mounted rollers arranged on said base and engaging saidskateboard deck.
 7. The skateboard simulator according to claim 1further comprises bellows, wherein said bellows house at least one ofsaid base and said at least one support.
 8. The skateboard simulatoraccording to claim 1 wherein said display comprises a housing and amonitor.
 9. The skateboard simulator according to claim 1 furthercomprising a sensor that is configured to sense the orientation and/ormovement of said skateboard deck.
 10. The skateboard simulator accordingto claim 9 further comprising one of a personal computer andmicrocontroller configured to receive sensor outputs from said sensorand forward said sensor outputs to said display in order to present theimage.
 11. A board sport simulator comprising: a base; at least onesupport; a board deck moveably mounted on said at least one support; anda display that presents an image; wherein the image presented on saiddisplay is responsive to movement of said board deck.
 12. The boardsport simulator according to claim 11 wherein said base is configured tobe attached to a floor surface.
 13. The board sport simulator accordingto claim 11 wherein said base is configured to support a circuit board.14. The board sport simulator according to claim 11 wherein said base isconfigured to hold at least one support.
 15. The board sport simulatoraccording to claim 14 wherein said at least one support comprises ashaft for rotatably connecting to said board deck.
 16. The board sportsimulator according to claim 11 further comprises spring mounted rollersarranged on said base and engaging said board deck.
 17. The board sportsimulator according to claim 11 further comprises bellows, wherein saidbellows house at least one of said base and said at least one support.18. The board sport simulator according to claim 11 wherein said displaycomprises a housing and a monitor.
 19. The board sport simulatoraccording to claim 11 further comprising a sensor that is configured tosense the orientation and/or movement of said board deck.
 20. The boardsport simulator according to claim 19 further comprising one of apersonal computer and microcontroller configured to receive sensoroutputs from said sensor and forward said sensor outputs to said displayin order to present the image.